[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] ajw34307 I wholeheartedly disagree. First of all, we've always known that there were many Halos because Guilty Spark states at the start of Two Betrayals in Halo CE: [i]"Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years. [b]But, once [u]the others[/u] follow suit[/b], this galaxy will be quite devoid of life..."[/i][/quote] By the end of Halo CE you blow the -blam!- out of Alpha Halo, and presumably save the UNSC/Covenant by preventing the Halo effect in that general area. The rest of the galaxy may still be screwed, but for the foreseeable future, everyone you know is safe. Delta Halo in Halo 2 is now for some reason a danger also, and relatively close to Earth even though Alpha Halo is basically next door :/. [quote]What exactly was 'left to the imagination' in Halo 2? [/quote] The status of Earth for the majority of the game The Covenant Schism Motives of the Prophets You know, the three most important things in the game. [quote]How did it do 'very little original work' when you identify it as being totally different from Halo CE?[/quote] It was "totally different" due to its non-existent focus and lack of primary, identifiable antagonists. The Brutes were added as an afterthought mostly (See; Bungie ViDocs), Prophets are essentially old guys with bad British accents, Drones were neat, but not included enough to be relevant.... Then, it took away what CE did right, namely; Dual permanent health-recharging shield system, good characters (Barring Johnson and the Arbiter soemwhat), mystery, open world environments and aliens that felt like aliens. [quote][i]Surely[/i] that implies that it did a lot of original work to be so different?[/quote] It bastardized what CE did while adding very little worthwhile content itself [quote]The Covenant aren't meant to be mysterious.[/quote] You don't know the motives of the Covenant in CE, barring activating Halo. [quote]The Forerunners were, the Covenant serve as the 'relay' for uncovering that mystery,[/quote] Despite that, the Covenant were essentially cast as a Human faction with different character skins in Halo 2, making them boring. [quote] as we see from the Arbiter's point of view where his missions are generally centred around discovery of the truth.[/quote] Arbiter missions shouldn't have been done, there should've been a second campaign instead of the hybrid one. The format they did it in prevents any sort of focus and changes the tone of the story waaaayyyyy too much for it to be effective and engaging [quote]I personally cannot see how the Halo universe would have any kind of depth surrounding the enemies if they remained generic aliens who want to kill humans.[/quote] Argument from ignorance, also assuming truly alien antagonists cannot be effective [quote] Halo 2 added substance to their goals and motivations, 'dealiening' allowed Bungie to implement a lot of religious symolism and political ideologies for that faction.[/quote] Most of which was stolen from Human mythology and consisted of Bible references. It would've been much better if the Master Chief uncovered their motives, partially, over the course of the series, and not all at once. [quote]While I am under no delusions that I'm going to [i]change[/i] your opinion on the matter, I simply cannot see your reasoning for thinking the way you do.[/quote] Likewise :3 [quote] Halo 3 and ODST are the direct products of what Halo 2 set up, they are extremely similar thematically because Halo 2 was the basis for their individual (yet linked) stories. Again, your logic there doesn't seem quite clear.[/quote] It's difficult to explain, but Halo 3/ODST did more with what they had than Halo 2.